Tyler Bray’s NFL Chances

by joelcollins2

Tyler Bray (Photo credit: Greece Trip Admin)

Kansas City Chiefs’ rookie minicamp has begun, and the most talked about player is not number one overall draft pick Eric Fisher. Instead, former Tennessee quarterback Tyler Bray has been drawing much attention in KC despite not being drafted. The 6’6”, 232 pound QB was signed as an undrafted free agent following the 2013 NFL draft. Although coming off an up and down season with Tennessee, the Chiefs’ organization will need three quarterbacks on their roster. Kansas City passed on Geno Smith and Matt Barkley, making their intentions of starting Alex Smith rather clear. However, Chiefs’ fans are not sold on the former San Fransisco 49ers QB who was replaced by Colin Kaepernick as the starting quarterback last season.

As popular as Tyler Bray is in Kansas City, there are probably no starting opportunities for him at this point. The bigger question for him is whether or not he’ll even make the team. The critics claim Bray is far too immature to play NFL football at this point in his career; they believe that another year at the University of Tennessee would have done him a great service. But, Tyler has a strong arm and a big body fit to take the hits of the NFL game. If he is mentally tough enough, he might see playing time if Alex Smith does not meet expectations.

The first thing to take into account when determining the probability of a player making a team is the competition at the given position. In the case of Tyler Bray, I give his competition at quarterback a D-. The Kansas City Chiefs released their former starting QB Matt Cassel who was an under achiever last season, making room for newcomers like Alex Smith and possibly Tyler Bray. With the lack of quality competition at the quarterback position to go along with Bray’s recent popularity, I would say he has a very strong chance of making the 2013 squad.

When asked what the most difficult obstacle in day one was for him, he responded saying, “Just getting out the playcall in the huddle. I’m not used to the huddle – we did no-huddle, hand signals and now I’m having to hear the play caller, go in the huddle and try to make sure everyone knows what they’re doing.” This is not an unusual struggle for a rookie quarterback. Most quarterbacks, with the exception of Robert Griffin III, Andrew Luck, and Russel Wilson, have had a difficult time in their first seasons adapting to the hard hits and physicality of the NFL game.

As mentioned before, Tyler Bray was not drafted, and although his dad was not happy about his son not being taken, he claims he has gotten over it. “It’s not your choice. You’re not the one sitting around in the draft room picking, so you just wait around. If you don’t get drafted, you pick up the phone and try to find a team and I found a team here in Kansas City.” Bray is handling the situation as well as anyone could ask for, the same cannot be said of his father.

Only time will tell how Bray will weather the challenges of the National Football League. Nothing would please me more than to see Bray succeed with the Chiefs’ organization. Kansas City should definitely hold on to this young prospect.